As year-rounders and summer visitors can’t help notice, the Schroon Town Hall Library expansion progresses at a breakneck pace.

Builders are racing to meet the Labor Day deadline, Town Supervisor Mike Marnell had set for the project, which includes a new courtroom, offices for Town employees and the much anticipated library expansion.

And the Friends Of Schroon Lake Library (FOSLL) are hoping that there’s going to be some new furnishings for those new digs come opening day.

They are backing a huge fundraising effort in the months ahead, and are pleased to announce their first big event.

FOSLL and the Trustees of the library reached out to the Stewart’s Ice Cream corporation, who run a matching grant project-- donating $2.5 million a year -- to community projects its customers will benefit from.

From FOSL’s Sue Repko:

“When the library reached out to Stewart’s Shops requesting support for the expansion project, Stewart’s saw this as an opportunity to use their Matching Gift Program to make this a community effort.

The Matching Gift Program allows Stewart’s to support charities that their customers feel strongly about, while also providing an opportunity to increase the community’s awareness of the organization’s efforts.

Over a two-week period, Stewart’s Shops will be encouraging their customers to support the library project by matching their donations made at the Schroon Lake shop. This is a similar concept to their well-known Holiday Match Campaign, but on a smaller, localized scale.”

So save the dates: Stewart’s Matching Gift event runs from July 31 through August 13. Therefore, every dollar you donate to the library magically doubles.

Sue say’s there’s a $5,000 cap on matching donations, ($10,000 total) in order to keep the matching gift program in balance with their overall contribution program.

“Stewart’s Shops will match up to a total of $5,000 collected in the shop Business donations or any contribution in excess of 10% of the total collected will not be matched, but appreciated”.